9. Dancing and Politics in Croatia: the Salonsko Kolo As a Patriotic Response to the Waltz1 Ivana Katarinčić and Iva Niemčić
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WALTZING THROUGH EUROPE B ALTZING HROUGH UROPE Attitudes towards Couple Dances in the AKKA W T E Long Nineteenth-Century Attitudes towards Couple Dances in the Long Nineteenth-Century EDITED BY EGIL BAKKA, THERESA JILL BUCKLAND, al. et HELENA SAARIKOSKI AND ANNE VON BIBRA WHARTON From ‘folk devils’ to ballroom dancers, this volume explores the changing recep� on of fashionable couple dances in Europe from the eighteenth century onwards. A refreshing interven� on in dance studies, this book brings together elements of historiography, cultural memory, folklore, and dance across compara� vely narrow but W markedly heterogeneous locali� es. Rooted in inves� ga� ons of o� en newly discovered primary sources, the essays aff ord many opportuni� es to compare sociocultural and ALTZING poli� cal reac� ons to the arrival and prac� ce of popular rota� ng couple dances, such as the Waltz and the Polka. Leading contributors provide a transna� onal and aff ec� ve lens onto strikingly diverse topics, ranging from the evolu� on of roman� c couple dances in Croa� a, and Strauss’s visits to Hamburg and Altona in the 1830s, to dance as a tool of T cultural preserva� on and expression in twen� eth-century Finland. HROUGH Waltzing Through Europe creates openings for fresh collabora� ons in dance historiography and cultural history across fi elds and genres. It is essen� al reading for researchers of dance in central and northern Europe, while also appealing to the general reader who wants to learn more about the vibrant histories of these familiar dance forms. E As with all Open Book publica� ons, this en� re book is available to read for free on the UROPE publisher’s website. Printed and digital edi� ons, together with supplementary digital material, can also be found at www.openbookpublishers.com Cover image: A drunken scene in a dancing hall with a sly customer eyeing a young girl. Coloured etching by G. Cruikshank, 1848, aft er himself. Wellcome Collecti on, CC BY. Cover design: Anna Gatti book eebook and OA edi� ons also available EGIL BAKKA, THERESA JILL BUCKLAND, OBP HELENA SAARIKOSKI AND ANNE VON BIBRA WHARTON (EDS) https://www.openbookpublishers.com © 2020 Egil Bakka, Theresa Jill Buckland, Helena Saarikoski and Anne von Bibra Wharton. Copyright of individual chapters is maintained by the chapters’ authors. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0). This license allows you to share, copy, distribute and transmit the text; to adapt the text and to make commercial use of the text providing attribution is made to the authors (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Attribution should include the following information: Egil Bakka, Theresa Jill Buckland, Helena Saarikoski and Anne von Bibra Wharton (eds.), Waltzing Through Europe: Attitudes towards Couple Dances in the Long Nineteenth-Century. Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, 2020, https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0174 Copyright and permission for reuse of many images included in this publication differ from the above. Copyright and permissions information for images is provided separately in the List of Illustrations. In order to access detailed and updated information on the license, please visit https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0174#copyright Further details about CC BY licenses are available at https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/ All external links were active at the time of publication unless otherwise stated and have been archived via the Internet Archive Wayback Machine at https://archive.org/web Updated digital material and resources associated with this volume are available at https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0174#resources Every effort has been made to identify and contact copyright holders and any omission or error will be corrected if notification is made to the publisher. ISBN Paperback: 978-1-78374-732-0 ISBN Hardback: 978-1-78374-733-7 ISBN Digital (PDF): 978-1-78374-734-4 ISBN Digital ebook (epub): 978-1-78374-735-1 ISBN Digital ebook (mobi): 978-1-78374-736-8 ISBN XML: 978-1-78374-737-5 DOI: 10.11647/OBP.0174 Cover image: A Drunken Scene in a Dancing Hall with a Sly Customer Eyeing a Young Girl (1848). Coloured etching by G. Cruikshank, after himself. Wellcome Collection, CC BY 4.0. Cover design: Anna Gatti. 9. Dancing and Politics in Croatia: The Salonsko Kolo as a Patriotic Response to the Waltz1 Ivana Katarinčić and Iva Niemčić During the period of Croatian national revival, the Illyrian movement (1830–1948), dance halls became one of the key places where Illyrians gathered, and dance became one of the ways they promoted their ideas. This chapter will discuss these aspects, as well as how dances themselves had a role in the political life of Zagreb. We trace the arrival of the Waltz in the Croatian ballrooms and compare it with the appearance of the Salonsko Kolo (Fig. 9.1). Salonsko Kolo was an indigenous urban dance composed of figures and formations, which sprang up as a patriotic reply to the foreign Waltz. In order to express resistance to foreign influences, dance entertainments proclaimed and promoted national colours, national fashion, and patriotic verses, and it was in this environment that the Croatian or Slavonic Kolo-dance was born. We will trace its arrival, its spread, and its coexistence with other dances at balls, and we will also examine the survival of the Waltz and Salonsko Kolo until the beginning of the twentieth century.2 The Salonsko Kolo slowly fell into obscurity in urban ballrooms in Croatia. However, because its original purpose was to express national 1 A similar version of this chapter was first published in 2016/2017, as Iva Niemčić and Ivana Katarinčić, ‘Croatian Couple Dances from 19th Century till the Present Day: The Waltz and Salonsko Kolo’, Porte Akademik. Journal of Music and Dance Studies, 14/15 (2016/2017), 147–60. 2 All translations from Croatian sources throughout this chapter were produced by Nina Vrdoljak. © Ivana Katarinčić and Iva Niemčić, CC BY 4.0 https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0174.09 258 Waltzing Through Europe identity, it was taught and danced among Croatian expatriates. Unlike the Kolo, the Waltz successfully resisted the ravages of time and political upheavals, penetrated all levels of society, and is still danced today. We will first discuss dance venues, in order to demonstrate how the frequency with which dance socials were organised was connected with the discovery of appropriate dance venues. We will then examine dance events in the social context of nineteenth-century Zagreb, presenting their role and influence on Zagreb social life over a period of major political turmoil. Fig. 9.1 Video: Goran Knežević reconstructed the performance of Slavonsko Kolo. Veterani KUD-a Croatia — “hrvatsko salonsko kolo”’, 7:50, posted online by fudoooo1, Youtube, 7 May 2017, https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=OA9D5Zt94HQ; and ‘Goran Knežević- Hrvatsko salonsko kolo, FA Ententin, 1. FFK — Zagreb, 2003’, 7:48, posted online by Goran Knežević, Youtube, 21 July 2013, https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=J8LOIffuy_0 Dance Venues in Zagreb In the newspapers describing Zagreb life and customs, dances from the end of the eighteenth century were noted only in passing or were briefly mentioned. The daily newspapers of the nineteenth century, however, are a rich source of information about dance.3 With the rise of the noble 3 Narodne novine, and its literary supplement Danica horvatsko, slavonska, dalmatinska, in particular, included a host of reports on the time and place of the occasion of a particular dance, along with reports in which one could read about the number of people present at the dance, the order and protocol of the dances on the programme, and even the atmosphere at the dance venues. Narodne novine [National newspaper] was created in Zagreb in 1835 under the title Novine horvatske [Croatian newspaper]; from 1836 to 1843, it was titled Ilirske narodne novine [Illyrian national newspaper]; while from 1843, as the Illyrian name was banned, it became Narodne novine. It is stilla published today as the Offiil Gazett o te Rpbi o Croati (Antun Vujić, ‘Narodne novine’, in Hrvatski leksikon, vol. 2 (Zagreb: Naklada Leksikon, 1997), p. 160). Danica horvatsko, slavonska, dalmatinska was a literary paper with cultural and educational aims; it began in 1835 as a weekly supplement to Novine horvatske. It was a medium of linguistic standardisation and cultural and political integration. It came out in Zagreb from 1835–1849, in 1853, and from 1862–1867 (Antun Vujić, ‘Danica’, in Hrvatski leksikon, vol. 1 (Zagreb: Naklada Leksikon, 1996), p. 234). 9. The Salonsko Kolo as a Patriotic Response to the Waltz 259 and aristocratic families during the mid-eighteenth century, dances in Zagreb largely took place in the noble Upper Town aristocratic mansions, in the homes of the Zagreb nobility.4 Since dance entertainments were a novelty in the social and entertainment life of Zagreb at that time, they were met by opposition, criticism and condemnation. Baltazar Adam Krčelić characterised these first dances as ‘a temple of lust’ and ‘nest of promiscuity’.5 Describing the ‘living pictures’ that were an integral part of eighteenth-century dance events, he criticised ‘the debauchery and lasciviousness with which a man frolicked with the women, so that his legs were between the women’s legs, with one leg between the legs of one woman, and the other between the legs of another’.6 However, dance entertainment quickly became fashionable, and constituted the main activity in the social lives of the ruling Zagreb classes. Wanting to be ‘distinguished, everyone yearned [to be] at a dance ball or in the theatre’:7 At the end of the eighteenth century and during the nineteenth, the Croatian lands were divided territorially8 and under the great political and thus inevitably the social influence of Buda, Vienna, and Prague.